Handle Spout Vessel Depicting an Erotic Scene c. 100 - 500

Editor: Here we have a ceramic vessel, a "Handle Spout Vessel Depicting an Erotic Scene" by the Moche people, dating roughly from 100 to 500 AD. The depiction is, well, quite direct! How does the materiality and craft inform the message of the work? Curator: Exactly. Considering this vessel’s ceramic nature, we must reflect on the labour invested in its making. It involves extraction, preparation, shaping, painting, and firing. Editor: That’s a lot to think about! Curator: And why was it made? Was this purely aesthetic, or does the depiction of intimacy influence the use? Was it made for elites? Was its function purely symbolic or more quotidian? Such earthenware, commonly used to serve the dead in funerary rites, challenges us to broaden traditional understandings of ancient aesthetic intentions by bridging ritual practice with artistic skill. Editor: It sounds like this vessel collapses our categories, combining 'high art' with functional object and erotic subject matter with ceremonial purposes. So much more than meets the eye. Curator: Precisely. Examining how it was made opens us up to wider contexts such as economics and even daily life that have historically been considered secondary. Editor: I guess understanding how this object was made is vital to unlocking the culture and ideas that it embodies. Thanks! Curator: It also helps understand our present, thinking about our consumption and how labour goes into even the most seemingly simple things. A very fruitful visit!